Saturday, the Waterville senior added to her trophy case by capturing three individual titles and ran a leg on the winning 1,600-meter relay squad in helping the Purple Panthers capture their seventh consecutive girls’ Class B state track and field championship.
Waterville won by a convincing margin, 136-64 over runner-up Lake Region. Winslow was third with 60 points. In the boys’ meet, Waterville captured its fifth Class B title since 2006 and its first since 2011. The boys’ winning margin was much smaller than the girls, 96-87 ½ over Falmouth, with York finishing third at 66 points.
For Brown, it was her fourth consecutive year of being involved in the team win.
“It’ll be sad to leave Waterville,” said Brown, who plans to compete in all three running seasons next year at UConn. “When I started, I didn’t even know I had to wear spikes. I thought everyone ran in sneakers.”
Brown just missed breaking her own record in the 1,600-meter run with her time of 4:56.34, falling short by less than one second. Later, she set a new record in the 800 with a time of 2:16.5. She finished her day by winning the 3,200 before competing in the 1,600 relay.
This was the first time she had attempted the three distances in the same day at an outdoor state meet.
“I was a little concerned,” said Brown, “but I’ve done it before indoors. I really wanted to try it. It was like a mind over matter situation and I wanted to score as many points as I could for my team.”
Waterville sophomore Sarah Shoulta matched Brown’s feat with four titles. She took top honors in the pole vault along with the 100 and 300 hurdles while joining Brown in the relay race. Kellie Bolduc added a first place in the triple jump
Another big winner in the girls’ meet was Lake Region sophomore Kate Hall. Hall won both the 100 and 200-meter sprints in a landslide and set new records in the 100 (12.15) and the long jump (18-5¾ inches). It was her second time around in winning those three events at the state meet.
The top local team was Poland, which finished in 10th place with 21 points. The Knights’ Emma Turton took fourth in the 100 while adding a pair of seconds in the 200 and the 300 hurdles. Turton narrowly missed winning the 300 after leading into the final hurdle. As she landed after jumping over the hurdle, she staggered slightly while Shoulta landed cleanly and passed her in the final few meters.
Gray-New Gloucester’s Kierstin Stritch was another local placing high. She was second in the javelin.
The Waterville boys received a pair of wins from Nick Danner in the shot put and the javelin. The senior set a new state mark in the revised javelin with a throw of 192-9. Jordhan Levine added a win the triple jump with Devin Burgess taking home the long jump crown.
Levine and Burgess teamed up in sealing the win for the Purple Panthers in the meet-ending 1,600 relay. Leading Falmouth by 6 ½ points going into the race, Waterville coach Ian Wilson pulled his relay team together for some last minute instructions just prior to the start of the race.
“Coach just told us to relax and run our race,” said Levine. “He didn’t tell us how much we were up by. He just told us to go out and win it.”
Things didn’t look good for Waterville has Levine took hold of the baton for the third leg. Not only was he in third place, he stumbled over another runner exiting the track in lane one.
“It was really inconvenient,” said Levine, “especially when you have an obstacle in my way. It was the second time this year I had to go get someone, but I was ready because we had practiced hard all season.”
Not only did Levine catch the other two runners ahead of him, he gave Burgess a comfortable cushion and the Purple Panthers won going away.
Wells’ Denzel Tomaszewski had a successful day by winning the two dashes. He also tacked on a team win by starting off the victorious 400 relay squad.
Other multiple winners were York’s Tom Reid who swept the hurdles and Dan Curts of Ellsworth who won the two distance runs. Curts’ time of 4:14.02 set a new state mark.
The top local team was Gray-New Gloucester, which finished in eighth place with 35 points, just ahead of Spruce Mountain’s 25 points.
There were three local winners on the boys’ side with Will Shafer and Elijah Locke winning the 800 and high jump respectively, while Spruce Mountain’s Sam Brenner won the 1,600-meter race walk.
Shafer was runner-up to Curts in the 1,600 despite turning in a personal best of 4:16.28 which was good enough to beat the previous state record. In the 800, Shafer led a tight pack of four runners before pulling away from Falmouth’s Azad Jalali in the final 200 meters.
“Just going into the 800 I pretty much threw up everything in my stomach,” said Shafer. “I wanted to go out fast and control the race. This season my legs would lock up in the last 100. I just tried to stay calm and pushed for the last 400.”
After failing to qualify for the state meet in 2012, Brenner entered Saturday as the top-seeded racewalker. The sophomore had to come from behind to pass Caribou’s Mitchell St. Peter in the final lap and won by a slim margin, although St. Peter would later be disqualified.
“That first lap was crazy,” said Brenner, “then he passed me. The last 100 meters was intense.”
Spruce Mountain’s Alwayne Uter added a second-place finish in the javelin.
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